A pulse detector is a common electronic component used, for example, in computer disk drives to convert an analog signal from the read/write heads into digital logic levels for use by the computer system. In the disk drive example, the analog waveform is generated as the read/write head moves on the disk tracks reading the magnetic information stored thereon.
Most, if not all, known pulse detectors generate digital output pulses when the analog signal reach a peak value above a predetermined threshold. An ideal analog read-back signal from the disk head has single, distinctive positive and negative peaks flowing in a smooth waveform, whereby the pulse detector may sample the peak level of the analog signal at one point to obtain the corresponding logic level. However, in practice the analog waveform may include multiple peaks caused by magnetic pickup from adjacent disk tracks as the read/write head traverses the track of interest. The adjacent track interference causes multiple peaking in the analog waveform and generates multiple output pulses from the pulse detector. Generally, it is difficult to determine which output pulse corresponds to the true peak of the analog waveform for providing maximum signal-to-noise ratio.
Hence, what is needed is an improved pulse detector which detects monotonically increasing peaks and ignores peaks following the maximum amplitude of the analog signal.